


Charm Bracelets and Window Displays

by HotChocolateandPaperbacks



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Demigods (Percy Jackson), Alternate Universe - No Powers, Aphrodite Ships It, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Gen, Hazel Levesque is a Good Sibling, How Do I Tag, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Titles, M/M, Minor Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:00:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28225761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HotChocolateandPaperbacks/pseuds/HotChocolateandPaperbacks
Summary: 'The mall was alight with hordes of frazzled shoppers hurrying across the slippery square, leaving dirty footprints in the white snow, all scurrying to meet their shared goal, watching as the large clock ticked down.Christmas Eve, when the masses of late shoppers, heckled parents and travelling college students alike, descended on the stores like seagulls hungrily searching for their food.“You’re so dramatic,” Hazel had commented when he voiced his opinions, only half paying attention as she admired the window displays, “It’s a quintessential holiday experience,” 'Hazel and Nico go Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. In which Hazel has a great idea, Nico follows along half-heartedly, and they both find something special in the experience.
Relationships: Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Nico di Angelo & Hazel Levesque, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 4
Kudos: 42





	Charm Bracelets and Window Displays

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and thanks for reading! This fic is set in a non-magical world, meaning none of the characters are demigods or gods. Hopefully it makes sense.
> 
> Thanks very much to those who take the time to comment or kudos!

The shopping mall would, Nico thought, be quite a picturesque setting on any normal day of the week. A rather small place, with rows of shops ringing the outdoor square and currently covered in a fluffy blanket of snow, the scene practically radiated feel-good festive sappiness. It didn’t help that everything, from the railing on the staircases to the supporting pillars, was wrapped in layers of tinsel, baubles and general cheer.

Of course, this was not any normal day of the week. It was not even any normal day of the year. It so happened that this cold, wet Thursday in December was every retailer's nightmare and dearest daydream simultaneously, a period of time fit to strike fear into the hearts of grown men and women. The mall was alight with hordes of frazzled shoppers hurrying across the slippery square, leaving dirty footprints in the white snow, all scurrying to meet their shared goal, watching as the large clock ticked down. 

Christmas Eve, when the masses of late shoppers, heckled parents and travelling college students alike, descended on the stores like seagulls hungrily searching for their food.

“You’re so dramatic,” Hazel had commented when he voiced his opinions, only half paying attention as she admired the window displays, “It’s a quintessential holiday experience,” she said the last words slowly, like she was testing out the way they tasted in her mouth.

“If Leo told you that, you know it’s bullcrap,” he glanced at the clock again, then back at the list Hazel clasped in one hand, detailing the people they still had to buy gifts for. They’d crossed off exactly one name, Frank Zhang, Hazel’s boyfriend, who she’d had the forethought to have already bought a gift for.

Hazel noticed, and adjusted the paper so they could both read it. She was dressed as though they were about to be hit by multiple blizzards in the middle of the Arctic, probably because living in New Orleans for most of your life didn’t really prepare you for a New York winter. Even with her long parka, several woollen sweaters, and matching purple scarf, gloves and hat, she was still shivering, warm brown skin flushed from the cold.

“We should probably get a move on,” she said, dragging herself away from the sparkling store windows and reviewing the directory pamphlet she’d picked up from the help desk. Nico had assured her they hadn’t needed it, and that all malls were the same really, but he had to admit that knowing where they were going was helpful. 

“Who do you want to get for first?” he asked, peering over her shoulder. 

“I’ve got some ideas for Percy and Annabeth, but I can’t give them their presents until they get back from their orientation in California, so they aren’t as urgent… Maybe some kinda novelty t-shirt for Jason? Does he like that sorta thing? Ooh! I could get some of those cool teacups for them! Y’know, with different personalised writing on them! Like Leo got Cal last year!” His sister looked up at Nico with clear excitement in her golden-brown eyes. He had some vague recollection of Calypso’s gift from last year, a coffee mug printed with a flowing Spanish phrase that made her cuff Leo’s ear, half indignantly-half affectionately.

Hazel, having grown up in a more ‘traditional’ (or old fashioned, racist, and strict) environment, always seemed to find great awe in the marvels of modern technology, such as the said personalised mugs. Looking down at her now, face glowing with happiness, Nico found he couldn’t really say no.

“Yeah alright then, where would we find those then?”

Hazel beamed, and consulted the directory. She mumbled a bit, then tugged him along the walkway, past rows of cheerful little stores selling toys and clothes and other festive wares. They finally turned into a little place decorated with obscene amounts of pink tinsel and, oddly, Valentine’s day hearts stuck up in the windows. Nico was less than thrilled to find himself in the middle of what looked like the victim of a giant, hot pink explosion. Unsurprisingly, there weren’t heaps of customers in there. 

As they were looking around the shop, half-blinded by the decor, Nico and Hazel found themselves accosted by a tall, blonde-haired lady in a red dress. Her name tag informed them her name was ‘Di’.

“Hello, darlings!” She smiled brilliantly at the pair, “How can I help you?”

Nico glanced over at Hazel, who he was surprised to see was staring up at the woman instead. He coughed, and a faint blush spread across her face. He supposed he couldn’t blame her really, the woman was, objectively, very beautiful.

“Um… we were looking for presents. Do you personalise things here?” 

“Coffee mugs specifically,” Nico added.

The woman, still smiling, told them that she did indeed have a machine that did so. Hazel, excitement refilled, trotted behind the woman, following her to the front kiosk. Nico, slouching rather less cheerfully, decided to join them soon, crossing the names _Piper, Shel, Jason, Leo,_ and _Cal_ off the list for Hazel. In all honesty, he reckoned they were going to spend most of the evening buying his sister’s gifts for everyone, and then he would go buy twelve or so boxes of cheap chocolate and call it a day. 

As he walked up to the front, Nico browsed the shelves. Obviously, he wouldn’t be caught dead with anything from a shop like _this,_ but what he could only describe as a morbid curiosity kept him checking the labels on pink ‘Kiss The Cook’ aprons and bars of lavender-scented soap. After a while, with Hazel still talking through colours and designs up the front, he gave up any pretence of heading towards her and strolled up and down the aisles of jewellery and trinkets. 

“Looking for something for your special someone?” a voice asked behind Nico, and he could practically hear the smile behind it as he dropped the necklace he’d been inspecting.

“No,”

“Oh, I can hardly believe a nice boy like you doesn’t have someone back home, hmm?” Di hummed, reorganising the boxes of perfume beside her.

Nico stared at her, trying to find a mocking expression on her charming face, but the woman just beamed back without a trace of irony. A vivid mental image of Will Solace wearing the golden necklace with a large peace sign flashed before his eyes, and he quickly shook his head to clear it, ears burning.

“I don’t think gold chains are his kinda thing,” he said, then felt especially stupid. Why had he said that? The woman just smiled again, as if getting people to tell her things was just part of the job.

“That’s fine then, we’ve got plenty of other stuff here… hmm… maybe this?” she held up a black leather notebook, then saw his face, “No, okay… what about..” she turned her back to rummage around in the boxes behind them. 

“I really don’t- I mean, I’m not… He’s not…” 

“Oh. Well, what better time to confess your undying love than Christmas! Season of love!”

“I’m pretty sure it's the season of hope…” Nico muttered, fiddling with his skull ring. His cheeks were definitely red now.

“Exactly, never lose hope! Oh you kids, it’s so cute I’m going to cry!” Nico sincerely hoped she didn’t, and felt the woman wasn’t really understanding what he meant.

“Nico, I’m done!” Hazel called from the front, and he mentally thanked the gods for her impeccable timing.

Nico hurried up to her, quickly looked over the mugs, and paid before they could get into any more uncomfortable situations.

  
✱

“Y’know how Leo always calls Piper ‘Beauty Queen’? And Jason ‘Sparky’?” Hazel grinned, showing off her new coffee mugs, carefully nestled in a box of bubble wrap, “And I didn’t really know what to do for Cal’s so I just… Are you okay?” She looked up at Nico with concern, taking in the way he nodded absent-mindedly and twisted his skull-shaped ring around and around his finger.

“Yeah,” he said, glaring darkly at the Christmas tree they passed.

“You’re not,” she sounded almost disappointed, and tugged anxiously at her cinnamon curls, “Did we spend too long in there? Was there something else you wanted to buy? Oh, I made you leave too quickly, didn’t I?”

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong,”

“But you’re still upset?” Hazel prodded again.

“It was that annoying lady, okay? She was bugging me about… stuff,”

Hazel looked sympathetic, but also kind of like she was ready to go back and chew that woman’s ear off for him. He had to admit, his sister was pretty badass when she got angry, in a calm, grounded way.

“Was she being awful to you about looking at the jewellery? Honestly, these days you’d think people would have gotten over all that toxic masculinity stuff,”

“No… she asked if I had someone, um, back home, and I said not really, but that I kinda liked- anyway, and then she pressed me about asking someone and-”

Hazel was watching him with a knowing look, smiling slightly.

“What?” he asked, suddenly defensive. He’d thought _Hazel_ at least wouldn’t judge him for that sort of thing. Obviously, she caught a glimpse of that in his expression, because she quickly back-peddled. 

“Oh no, not like that, it’s just… well, you’re talking about that blonde-haired doctor guy, right?” 

“Will,” he immediately corrected, then felt his face flare up like a tomato at Hazel’s grin.

They walked in comfortable silence for a while, with Hazel stopping to admire the window displays every so often. Nico reviewed his list of people, mentally crossing off half the names in advance for the multitude of Christmas chocolates he was mentally buying in advance. 

“You gonna ask him out then?” Hazel asked a few minutes later, checking the price tag on a book she wanted to buy for Annabeth. Nico almost dropped the cheap coffees he’d bought for both of them.

“Will?”

“No, Santa Claus. Yes, _Will_ ,” 

“Um… no?”

Hazel looked at him with the same big eyes she used to convince him to add whipped cream and cinnamon drizzle to her chai latte order.

“C’mon Nico,” she implored, “You’re not gonna get anywhere if you don’t talk,”

“We talk,” he huffed.

“Sure,” Hazel uncharacteristically rolling her eyes, “I can tell he likes you too, y’know,”

“I know, it’s just… complicated,” he replied, trying to ignore the butterflies doing backflips in his stomach.

“Oh! Oh, I know! Let’s get him a Christmas present then, from you!”

Nico tried to convince himself the only reason he agreed was the tangible excitement his sister seemed to glow with.

✱

“No,”

“Gosh, Nico, is there _anything_ in here that you’d buy then?”

“No,”

“I swear you’re doing this on purpose,”

“It’s just not very… Will,”

Hazel frowned at her brother, confused and exasperated. It felt as though they’d been through every store in the mall, and every possible gift option, only for Nico to knock back every single suggestion. She was running out of ideas.

“Okay. That’s okay,” She took in a deep breath, and sighed it out, “So no clothing, no toys, no food, nothing outdoorsy and practical. Remind me, what does your doctor-boyfriend like again?”

“Not my boyfriend,” Nico replied sullenly, “And… I mean, he _likes_ all that sort of stuff, I just want this to be special,” he finished, rubbing the back of his neck in an embarrassed way. Hazel softened slightly.

“That’s a good idea, really,” she assured him, “Something meaningful… um, a personalised mug?” she tried, smiling slightly.

Nico didn’t laugh.

“Okay, a keyring, or a charm bracelet, or a really nice card, ooh! You could print the really nice message from the card _on_ the mug!” She clapped her hands slightly. Hazel knew they were all stupid ideas, she just wanted to cheer her brother up. Frank would probably say that she was doing a great job and that Nico was just difficult to deal with. It was true, yes, but Hazel wanted to help Nico, and so far that wasn’t going so well. She was about to call it off, say it was a bad idea anyway, when Nico interrupted. 

“Hang on,”

“Message on a coffee mug?”

“No, before that,”

“Oh, a charm bracelet? Frank bought me one a couple of years back, with all these little charms to commemorate our different memories and so. It was quite cute, actually, and we get a new one each year, to celebrate everything” She smiled softly, not particularly caring if she looked like a sap.

“Huh,” was all Nico said, but he was smiling too.

“To the Jewellers we go!” Hazel announced, finishing her chai latte and marching out of the shop.

  
✱

It was in the Jewellers shop that they finally found what they were looking for. A gold chain bracelet, strung with charms Nico had picked from the large display. Hazel understood the meaning of some of them - a red cross for the infirmary where Nico trained, where Hazel was pretty sure they had met; a little Star Wars logo, because they were both massive geeks.

Of course, there were others she didn’t quite ‘get’. A silver sword, a sparkling sun, what looked like a ying-yang symbol. But she didn’t need context to know they held value - one look at her brother's face, softly lit up with love, told her that each tiny charm meant very much to Nico and, hopefully, Will.

They both watched as the bored-looking salesgirl ringed everything up, peeling off price tags, attaching the charms and wrapping the shiny bracelet in crisp tissue paper. Hazel even found a festive ribbon to tie around the package, before carefully placing it in the black bag Nico held. 

The sun had long ago finished its daily trek across the pale winter’s sky, and snow is once again falling in quick flurries by the time they get back to the square. Nico is so absorbed in his purchase that Hazel had to pull him out of the way of hassled shoppers multiple times before they managed to find an empty bench to sit and drink their hot drink refills. 

“Thanks,” Nico said, still looking down at his bag. He wore a goofy kind of smile Hazel had never thought she’d see on her brother's face.

“No problem,” she replied, smiling back through a mouthful of piping hot chai, “We’re not done yet though,”

“Oh?”

“ _You’ve_ still got to buy everyone cheap Christmas chocolate, and I haven’t got Reyna or anyone back in San Fransisco gifts yet,” She thought back to her colleagues, both in the workplace and at the summer camp she and Frank ran.

Nico looked up guiltily, shrugging his shoulders in a ‘you’ve caught me’ gesture. 

“Yeah, alright,” he said, “That’s true. But it’s not like I’m gonna buy them _bad_ chocolate or anything, I’ve got standards,”

Hazel laughed and knocked their shoulders together as best she could as a rather shorter human. There was a comfortable silence as Nico glanced back down at the jewellery bag, not quite believing he’d actually bought it, and she looked out at the rows of shop windows. She’d always liked looking at the displays, even as a kid in New Orleans. They were shining pinpricks of stars, lighting up the cold, dark night. They were portals into another world, even, warm and filled with love. The kind of world where everything was always right, where families sat around their televisions on Christmas eve, sitting close and drinking hot chocolate as they watched the same holiday movie for the third time. 

Not that she needed that kind of world now. She had everything she needed right here, in Frank, in her brother, in all her friends who now felt like family. 

All of a sudden, her musings were interrupted by a cold spot landing on her nose. On further inspection, it was a snowflake that had drifted in, small and delicate. She watched as another floated down, spinning in rotations, to also land neatly on her nose.

“Snow,” Hazel sighed, “I’ll never understand it,”

Beside her, Nico laughed, dry and almost raspy, as if he’d forgotten how to. It was a real laugh, she was surprised and pleased to hear. She turned and looked up to see her brother looking off into the distance, seemingly without hearing her comment. She followed his gaze- ah. Of course.

Over by the fountain in the square, a blonde-haired figure stood, rugged up in almost as many layers as Hazel. He appeared to be wordlessly communicating with Nico, making a teasing face, half scrunched up and pinched from the cold. Hazel grinned, and interrupted their telepathic conversation with a wave, calling the guy over. 

“What are you doing?” hissed Nico, looking panicky.

“That’s Will, yeah?” She whispered back, both watching as the boy loped over, looking a tad confused, “Coincidence much? Why don’t you give him his present now?”

Then, a little louder, because what else were little sisters for: “It’s fate, Nico!”

He hushed her, but the corners of his lips were twitching up into a smile. Hazel saw her chance and took it.

“I’ll meet you at the grocery store,” she told him, and picked up her bags, waving at Nico’s priceless expression as she walked away.

It really was a beautiful setting, Hazel thought, while watching the hurried shoppers dash about. She passed another window display, twinkling with colour and dancing in the dark of winter. Truly, a season of hope and love.


End file.
